There's no such thing as Monsters
by verbal acuity
Summary: Rikkai-childhood; slight YukiKiri - Akaya slept at Seiichi's house when they were little. He was scared of the monsters in the closet. How does Seiichi help? - fluffy oneshot.


**there's no such thing as monsters**  
by **with love - fred**  
**disclaimer**: I do not own ze prinze of tenniz. oh woe is me. ;o;  
**a/n**: ahhh. I was gonna write a really long author's note. but no. I'm tired of having my author's notes longer than my stories. all you need to know is that this idea came from me watching the movie 'the monster squad' at 2am the other night. (why can't I write stories under a thousand words anymore? XD) enjoi!

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As a little kid, Kirihara Akaya had always been terrified of monsters. Most nights, he'd crawl out of bed and stumble his way to his parents' room, tug on his mother's sleeve, and tell her to scare the monsters away from his closet. He tried to explain that his closet door moved and creaked on its own, and he'd see bright yellow eyes staring back at him until he hid under his covers.

His mother always told him it was all in his head, and sent him back to his room.

The Kiriharas got tired of little Akaya's whining about monsters and sent him to his friend's house one night. That friend was Yukimura Seiichi. Though they were a year apart in age and grade, they'd been good friends -- at least, they were when that angry little Sanada boy didn't drag Seiichi away on his own -- and Seiichi was very protective of his kouhai. The Kiriharas trusted the Yukimuras to teach their son what was real and what wasn't.

"Sei-chaaan..." little Akaya whined, clinging to his friend's sleeve, tears in his eyes. "Can you... can you look in the closet before we go to bed, please?" He pouted, pointing to the closet across the room, an inch of darkness showing from the inside. Seiichi smiled and petted the curly locks softly, nodding once before slowly making his way to his closet and opening it. Light quickly danced into the dark mini-room, showing nothing scary. As he turned back to smile at the smaller boy, he found tears flowing from the tightly closed eyes, little fisted hands wiping the tears away.

He made his way back to Akaya and wrapped his arms tightly around him. "Aka-chan, it's okay, see?" He smiled and grabbed the small chin in his own small hand, tilting the other to look up into his eyes. "I'm still here, and there are no monsters." He wiped a tear away, smile soothing the younger boy.

"R-Really, Sei-chan? There are really no m-monsters?"

If anything, his smile widened. "Have I ever lied to you, Aka-chan?" he asked, knowing full-well what the answer would be. All the close friends of Akaya in Rikkai Elementary -- which only included the six boys older than him (excluding Jackal; he was in Brazil at the time) that have protected him for years -- knew that the only ones that would lie about something like that were little Haru and Bun-chan.

"N-No... but--" Seiichi silenced him, the small hand now covering his mouth.

"There are no monsters, and that's that." That sweet smile never faded, and it slowly led Akaya to smile. "Would you like to see for yourself, or can I close the closet door now?"

Little Akaya thought about it for a moment. Haru and Bun-chan would probably push him in and lock it... but Sei-chan would never do that. He trusted him. But that trust was what made him decide that he didn't need to see the closet. He shook his head, small smile growing. "I'm okay, Sei-chan!" he said brightly, earning a brighter smile from the slightly taller boy.

With one last hug, Seiichi pressed a kiss to his kouhai's forehead and ushered him to the futon that he'd be sleeping on for the night, right next to his own bed. He tucked Akaya into the covers, got into his own, and turned the little lamp-knob until it clicked twice, shutting off the light.

--

Hours later, he woke to his upper body shaking, opened his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the dark before sitting up. "Aka-chan...?" he asked sleepily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Nn... what is it?" He gave a yawn.

"M-Monsters..." Akaya whined, fingers holding tight to a handful of Seiichi's pajama shirt. "They're in your c-closet, Sei-chan..." He sobbed, now hiding his face in the older boy's chest. Seiichi patted his back softly for a moment before rubbing at it to soothe him.

"Here," he said, sitting up and pulling Akaya up in the process. "You sleep here with me and I'll protect you, okay?"

"'Kay." His voice was so quiet, Seiichi barely heard it, but he did. The smaller boy climbed into his senpai's bed, arms automatically wrapping around the blue-haired boy's torso, clinging tightly as if for dear life -- which, in Akaya's case, _was_ for dear life. They both held tight to each other and fell asleep; Akaya with a content smile at the feeling of being safe, and Seiichi with his own smile knowing he was the reason the boy felt safe. **x owari**

--

**omake x** As a little kid, Kirihara Akaya had always been terrified of monsters. It was always a wonder to the rest of the Rikkai regulars how he had gotten over that fear as he was growing up. Neither Kirihara nor Yukimura had ever told the secret -- though everyone did pry for it repeatedly (Niou and Marui for kicks, Sanada out of jealousy, and Yanagi for the sake of data-gathering; it never really mattered to Yagyuu, and Jackal never knew about the fear anyway) -- frankly because they both enjoyed watching their team squirm for the answer (Yukimura out of pure sadism, and Kirihara because he wanted to get back at his senpai-tachi for all they'd done to him).

Another thing the team wondered was, why the hell did Kirihara -- if he was so damn afraid of monsters back then -- become one himself? He was Devil Kirihara, after all.

"Hey, bratling," he heard Niou-senpai's voice from behind him as he played against Yukimura-buchou for fun (though Sanada-fukubuchou did attest that there were no 'fun' matches against Rikkai's captain). "Where have the monsters in your closet gone, ah?" He smirked, hoping to scare the boy. "Did your devil self scare them away?"

Kirihara turned and sent a look to his blue-haired captain and opponent. Yukimura smiled. He turned back to Niou-senpai with a grin. "Of course not, Niou-senpai, there are no such things as monsters!" he announced for all of the regulars to hear, then smirked and added, "Maybe you should grow up, _Haru-chan_, if you believe such childish things."

Niou's eye twitched and he stalked away and sat on the bench, grumbling about little brats that he wished he never saved in the first place. Marui snickered in his singles match against Jackal (they figured they needed to try singles at least once against each other, for fun). "Aww, poor Haru-chan!"

Before he could say anything more, though, he found himself on the ground, a tennis ball having been pelted at his head. From the looks of it, Niou had done it -- his racquet was in his hand, arm poised above his head. Yagyuu sat beside his doubles partner, chastising him for injuring a teammate. Yanagi took notes as Sanada 'TARUNDORU'd Kirihara, Marui, and Niou for being out of turn. Yukimura could only laugh softly and tell his little kouhai to continue the match.

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**end note**: mm, this was fun. nowhere near smut, yay! they're just so cute as kids. I love akaya. (and one day, I swear, I will type properly again. just not... now. XD) and I am not making my end note longer than my story, really. -cough.-

oh oh oh. though it isn't exactly winning in the poll on my page, I have an oshiato story to write soon. my friend's fault, not mine. XD;

review, please! see ya! ;D


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